Counselling, mental health and wellbeing service pledge

We’ll:

treat you with respect, ensuring your psychological and mental health support needs are carefully assessed and appropriate care pathways provided
ensure your wellbeing is prioritised and you are treated with sensitivity and empathy
provide a welcoming, inclusive and accessible environment where you feel listened to and valued
work in partnership with our students and others in the University community to continually develop and improve our services
evaluate the quality of our service to you, by seeking your feedback through clinical questionnaires and evaluation forms
provide a confidential service, ensuring that any information we gather is stored securely and handled sensitively
only share information on a need-to-know basis with your consent, except when there is an immediate serious risk of harm
offer consultation, support and training to colleagues across the University to raise awareness of the services we provide to support students experiencing emotional and psychological difficulty
offer advice to colleagues on how to respond effectively to students in distress

We’ll:

treat you with courtesy and fairness and with sensitivity to your individual needs
prioritise your safety and wellbeing and respond to urgent queries as soon as possible on the same day
make appropriate and timely referrals for support where needed
ensure our services are delivered by professionally qualified and experienced mental health advisers, counsellors, therapists, and wellbeing advisers, keeping up to date with developments in relevant research and good practice
promote good mental health and provide a wide range of resources including online services and a programme of workshops designed to help you to develop strategies to improve your wellbeing and overcome common mental health difficulties
communicate directly with you via the most secure means available
only communicate with others about your care with your explicit consent, except in certain rare circumstances where your or others health and wellbeing are at serious risk
work collaboratively with you, and with other university and external services where appropriate, to help ensure that your mental health support needs are met
respond in a timely manner to feedback and attempt to resolve any issues you may raise

In order for us to offer appropriate, timely and high-quality services, we ask you to:

whenever you contact us, provide us with your full name and student ID, and ensure that your contact details in university systems are up to date
respond in a timely manner to offers of appointments so that we can provide support to all our students as quickly as possible
attend your appointments and provide at least 24 hours’ notice if you need to cancel or rearrange where possible.
register with a GP local to the University
contact us if you have any queries or feel there are any issues with your support
treat staff and other users within the Counselling, Mental Health and Wellbeing Service with courtesy and respect

Our pledge